Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 4-16-21

State
School Vouchers - A Parent’s Nightmare
BY JODI YONDER
MIAMI --- Rebecca Forbes-Levy is very passion- ate about education. Like many African American par- ents, she wanted to make sure her only son received the best education available. Unfortu- nately, like many parents, Re- becca bought into the McKay Scholarship Program, which is code for vouchers.
It began a nightmarish journey that Rebecca Forbes painfully recalls.
“I went to Tallahassee and spoke against these programs before the legislature for at least three years in a row. I did not want anyone to go through what my family experienced. It was devastating.”
Vouchers use Florida tax- payer dollars to pay for recipi- ents to attend private schools. The pitch is always the same.
REBECCA FORBES-LEVY
For African Americans, the op- portunity to send their child to a so-called private school is al- luring. It is also presented as an upscale alternative to public schools. But the private school label cannot cover the inade- quacy beneath. Rebecca found that her son’s time in a Homestead pop-up school cost thousands more than the
SEN. JANET CRUZ (D) Tampa
vouchers covered and was a curriculum wasteland.
Her son graduated with worthless unacceptable credit hours. No college would accept him. He had to go back to pub- lic school to get the proper credits to attend college. Re- becca quit her job to help guide her son through his two- year high school redo.
REP. RANDY FINE (R) Palm Bay
Rebecca’s son will gradu- ate from Florida International University in June. The trau- matic experience was not lost on a mother who knew that the voucher education came with a price. She is still indignant when she tells the story of fraud. But sheer determination helped her realize the dream despite the bad experience.
But voucher advocates and their host schools are deter- mined to boost the voucher budget share by another half a billion dollars this year.. Edu- cation experts and numerous experts describe the effort as a “hollowing out “and re-segre- gation of public schools. Now Florida Republicans are work- ing at a fierce pace to pass their expansion effort. The plan's in- come threshold is middle in- come, and recipients have "education savings accounts" or debit cards to pretty much spend as they like. An extraor- dinary addition is legislation that includes students who have never enrolled in public school.
The controversy continues because voucher school
records, curriculum, stan- dards, and regulations are lax. It’s near impossible to find out how the money is spent and on what. Requests for public in- formation on the for-profit schools or regulations go unanswered. The schools rarely last long.
Many African American students and their parents are forced to return to public schools because the vouchers do not deliver on the better ed- ucation promise. But the ex- ploitation continues. School owners have received $5.5 bil- lion in state tax dollars since 2014.
The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped lawmakers’ ef- forts to funnel money out of public-school classrooms to voucher schools. “Ninety per- cent of our students attend public schools, and we see school districts that are reeling from the increased economic burden of this (COVID-19) pandemic. The expansion of these education savings ac- counts as a backdoor to funnel these public dollars into pri- vate schools, in my opinion, is inexcusable,” Senator Janet Cruz D-Tampa said.
In the House, the bill spon- sor speaks with pride about the impact of the law. "But again, the big picture is, let's get something done that makes the world better for parents and students," said bill spon- sor Rep. Randy Fine, a Palm Bay Republican.
Judging by the experiences of parents like Rebecca Forbes-Levy, the voucher ef- forts keep hurting the families it is supposed to be helping,
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